Colony Theatre to Present DAMES AT SEA, Beginning 4/11

The Colony Theatre will present the sixth and final production of its 37th season of shows with the tap-dancing, musical sensation, DAMES AT SEA, book and lyrics by George Haimsohn & Robin Miller, music by Jim Wise , choreography by Lisa Hopkins, musical direction by Dean Mora and directed by Todd Nielsen. DAMES AT SEA will preview on Wednesday, April 11; Thursday, April 12; and Friday, April 13 at 8:00pm and will open on Saturday, April 14 at 8:00pm and continue through Sunday, May 13 at The Colony Theatre, 555 North Third Street (at Cypress) adjacent to the Burbank Town Center.

Small town girl Ruby arrives in the Big Apple with her tap shoes in her suitcase, a song in her heart, and a burning desire to be a Broadway star. Just off the bus she meets and falls in love with Dick, a sailor who just happens to be a song writer with aspirations of his own. They can sing a lovely duet, but can they save a Broadway show when calamity strikes? It’s an affectionate spoof of the grand and glorious Busby Berkeley movie musicals of the 1930s – a singing, tap dancing delight with a cast of only six!

In May 1966, Dames at Sea opened in Greenwich Village at the off-off-Broadway Café Cino under the title Dames at Sea, or Golddiggers Afloat, and launched the career of newcomer Bernadette Peters, who starred as Ruby. It re-opened in the Off-Broadway Bouwerie Lane Theatre on December 20, 1968 and then transferred to the Theatre De Lys on April 22, 1969, where it played until its closing on May 10, 1970, with a total of 575 performances. Perennially popular, the musical continues to be produced throughout the world.

The award-winning Colony Theatre was founded in 1975 as a 99-seat Equity-waiver theatre in Silver Lake. Over the years the company was so successful artistically, and built such a large subscriber base, that in 2000 it was able to move into a 270-seat theatre created for it by the City of Burbank, becoming one of only 5 mid-size professional theatres in the LA area that produce a year-round season of plays and musicals, and that employ actors under contract with Actors' Equity Association. Since the move to Burbank, The Colony was named one of "25 Notable U.S. Theatre Companies" by the Encyclopedia Britannica Almanac for 9 years in a row and voted "Best Live Theatre in LA" in The Daily News Readers' Choice poll. The company's audience is so loyal that in an era when subscription is declining dramatically, and when the industry-wide "gold standard" renewal rate of 80% is considered unattainable, for the past two seasons The Colony has achieved a subscription renewal rate over 90%. This season, at a time when many theatres are shortening their seasons and canceling performances, The Colony is expanding, for the first time in its history presenting six shows instead of the usual five.